Reflections on Studying the Past – Meddyliau ar Astudio'r Gorffennol
Christmas 1935 was a happier-than-usual one in Ebbw Vale. The steel firm of Richard Thomas & Company had just taken over the previously dormant premises of the Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron and Coal Company in the town, re-starting production and bringing hope of an end to the unemployment and poverty of the depression years. One … Read more
Online Research seminar: Wed 8 December 1.15pm Dr Rhea Seren Phillip This paper will discuss identity, memory and uses of the past, along with global interactions and connections which have a Welsh association. The primary focus of the paper will be the history of Princess Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn and her rebellious familial ties. However, I … Read more
What did the city of Swansea look like before the twentieth century? How has the past shaped the present outlines of the city streets and buildings? What traces are left of Swansea’s medieval and industrial history? A team of historians and academics are aiming to answer these questions by producing a map of early Swansea … Read more
** Unfortunately, due to very poor weather conditions forecast for tomorrow Saturday 2nd October, our Community event has been cancelled. We hope to rearrange something for next Spring.** Please join us for a creative and activity-filled morning at the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks on Saturday 2nd October 10am-1pm. We are working in partnership with People Speak Up and a … Read more
The nineteenth century was a time of significant change across rural Wales. Plagued with socio-political unrest, a series of factors laid the foundations for a series of uprisings known as the Rebecca Riots. The upper classes controlled all government and local parliaments, allowing for oppressive laws to be introduced and passed without resistance. The Turnpike … Read more
In an earlier blogpost I sketched the history of the city partnership between Swansea and Mannheim (Baden-Württemberg, Germany), from its establishment in the 1950s. That blog focused in particular on the creation of a monument to the partnership, a miniature replica of the German city’s main landmark, which was erected in Swansea in 1985. Since … Read more
Sam Blaxland The former England cricket captain, Ted Dexter, died on 26th August 2021, aged 86. This article, about a peculiar event in his career, originally featured in the 2016 edition of the Conservative History Journal. In 1964 the electorate of Cardiff South East faced the unusual situation of having the England cricket captain as … Read more
Dissertations are the culmination of an exhilarating journey which invariably demands days lost to fascinating yet redundant research, but which is also rich with discovery and presents fresh perspectives of the world we thought we knew. This construction of history as we know it became central to my research. How have we interpreted our past, … Read more
The persistent legacies of colonial domination have become a flashpoint in recent years. On the one hand, movements like Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall have provided a platform through which we can analyse how structural hangovers from imperialism continue to impact on the lives of underrepresented groups. On the other, that observation alone … Read more
One of Swansea’s least well-known monuments stands in the city’s Maritime Quarter. Formerly the site of the docks that facilitated much of the industrial activity upon which Swansea thrived in the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth, this quarter was redeveloped into a residential district in the 1970s and 80s. In the part … Read more